When tech entrepreneur Jeff Toewe’s son needed a routine eye surgery in 2016, he couldn’t get a straight answer as to what he thought would be a simple question: How much would it cost?
The doctor could tell him his fee but didn’t know about other charges from the facility, nurses or specialists, such as anesthesiologists. Jeff was shocked. How could a doctor who has performed thousands of these eye surgeries not know something as basic as how much a patient would be charged?
So, Jeff did what any consumer would do — he tried to do the research on his own. But it proved impossible. There was just no easy way to compare fees for providers or facilities. Even his health insurance plan couldn’t say how much he’d owe. His efforts to plan responsibly were good in theory, but all he experienced was frustration on top of an already stressful situation.
Thankfully, Jeff’s son’s surgery was a success, but the confounding process stayed with him long afterward. If he had this much trouble planning for a common procedure, what is it like for people with more serious needs? He decided to go further in his research.
Turns out, avoiding hidden fees wasn’t the only problem in healthcare. Employee out-of-pocket expenses were higher than ever. Employers were paying millions of dollars each year in inflated and hidden charges by hospitals and providers. Prices for procedures kept climbing. Bankruptcies, as a result of medical debt, were on the rise.
This was a much bigger problem than Jeff ever imagined. Everyone paying for health benefits deserved better.
From that moment, Jeff knew he had to find a way to help improve the state of healthcare for employers and their employees. He realized it wasn’t going to be easy, but having already been the founder of two start-ups in mobile payment services, he was up for the challenge.
His goal was clear: To develop a streamlined, state-of-the-art health benefits experience that prioritizes ease, clarity, and education. With the right tools, he knew he could help people be better informed — and spare them the unnecessary stress he experienced.
In 2019, Jeff’s vision became reality when Medxoom launched with its first employer clients.
Since then, we’ve assembled a team of the country’s most experienced technologists, data scientists, business consultants and health-benefits experts. We’ve guided hundreds of companies through the transition to a new health benefits platform. In just a few short years, our clients are already seeing higher member engagement and compliance, increased access to preventative care and significantly lower costs across the board.
But we’re just getting started. We won’t stop striving for ways to streamline the health benefits experience, and helping people make more informed choices about their health and well-being.